-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Sidney Frank made millions marketing Jagermeister and other alcohol brands . Three years after his death , he 's a big hit with students at the Ivy League college he briefly attended .

Sidney Frank , shown accepting an honorary degree in 2005 , gave $ 100 million to Brown University .

He 's a big hit not because of what he sold but because he 's given dozens of them what he could n't afford as a young man : an education at Rhode Island 's Brown University .

On Sunday , 49 students from low-income families became the first four-year Sidney E. Frank Scholars to graduate from Brown , owing virtually nothing except gratitude to the late liquor magnate .

`` The world of difference that he made for each and every one of us is unbelievable , incredible , '' one of the Frank Scholars , 22-year-old Shane Reil , said Sunday .

Frank -- who left Brown after one year in the late 1930s because he could n't afford to stay -- gave the school a $ 100 million endowment in 2004 . He stipulated that the fund 's income go exclusively to covering all tuition and expenses for the neediest of Brown 's admitted applicants . Hear graduates say how their dreams came true ''

For this year 's graduates , tuition and expenses came to a four-year total of about $ 180,000 each . The median annual income of the recipients ' families was $ 18,984 .

The gift was the largest single one ever given to Brown and one of the largest ever given for undergraduate scholarships in the United States , according to the school .

Reil , a history major who is preparing to co-chair a student conference on U.S.-South Korean relations and aspires to work in politics or foreign service , says the scholarship was the stuff of dreams .

He was working up to 40 hours a week during high school so he could pay for clothes and even help with grocery bills . He and his mother were getting by , but the Massachusetts native thought community college or a big state school would be all he could afford .

When his academic achievements put Brown in his sights , he thought he 'd have to go into too much debt to go there . But he applied anyway , and Brown invited him to campus to tell him about how much the school would award him .

`` I sat in this guy 's office ... and he said , ' $ 37,000 for tuition , ' '' Reil recalled . `` I said , `` $ 37,000 , that 's going to be split over four years , so essentially I 'm getting a $ 10,000 scholarship per year . '

`` He said , ` No , no , that 's $ 37,000 for this year , and it will be covered -LSB- the rest of the years -RSB- too . ' ''

Reil said he cried in the office and ran to his car , where his mother was waiting .

`` She was crying so much , we had to sit in the car for so long because she could n't drive . It was a great moment , '' Reil said .

`` Having the opportunity to go to a really good school ... I think it took my world from a very small area and physical space and just expanded it in multitudes , '' he said .

Though other universities give full rides , Frank 's gift was a coup for Brown . Like many other schools , Brown used to factor a family 's ability to pay when deciding whether to accept students .

Brown no longer does that , and Frank 's gift was `` integral '' in bringing the change , said Jim Miller , Brown 's dean of admissions .

The school intends to give 30 to 35 Frank scholarships per year . Most recipients are the first in their families to go to college , Miller said .

That was the case for Eliana Reyes Castro , who was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when she was 6 . She said she attended a Massachusetts high school that had regained its accreditation only months before she graduated .

Like Reil , she was one of the Frank Scholars who graduated Sunday . She received a degree in education with a concentration in human development and will pursue a master 's in secondary social studies and history at Brown .

She might have attended Brown even if she had to take out loans . But that might have taken her away from what she wanted to do -- teach -- in favor of something that she had less interest in but paid more , she said .

`` Just teaching right after college ... might not have been as appealing if I had loans to worry about , '' Reyes Castro said .

Frank , though he went to Brown only one year , landed an engineering job at Pratt & Whitney in part because someone there had gone to the school , said his daughter , Cathy Halstead . The company sent him overseas and he worked on Allied airplane engines during World War II , she said .

Eventually he got into the liquor business , started the Sidney Frank Importing Co. and marketed Jagermeister and Grey Goose vodka in the United States . He took up Jagermeister in the 1970s , sending attractive young women to bars to persuade patrons to try the drink and coming up with the Jagermeister tap machine .

He created Grey Goose , had it distilled in France and brought it into the United States through importers . In 2004 , he sold Grey Goose for $ 2.2 billion , said Halstead , 61 , of Seattle , Washington .

When Brown gave him an honorary degree in 2005 , not long after his gift and months before his January 2006 death , people gave him a hero 's welcome , she said .

`` People on both sides -LSB- of a procession -RSB- were yelling his name and yelling , ` Jager ! ' and yelling , ` Goose ! ' '' she said .

He gave millions of dollars to other institutions and projects . As for the Brown scholarship fund , he started it because he saw that Brown had changed the course of his life , Halstead said .

`` He really wanted kids who were coming from very economically challenged backgrounds to have the chance to make it all the way through , '' said Halstead , who attended Sunday 's graduation ceremony .

Reil and Reyes Castro said they could n't thank Frank enough if he were alive .

`` What he did is a catalyst for a lot of great things , and I 'm indebted to him to do the best with the education that I 've gotten here to help people in any way that I can , '' Reyes Castro said .

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Sidney Frank left $ 100 million to Brown University months before he died

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Frank attended Brown for one year in 1930s , left because he could n't afford it

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The gift covers tuition , other expenses for neediest accepted applicants

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First students to receive Frank 's scholarship for four years graduated Sunday